Plybon passes Howard as all-time leading scorer in Orrville girls basketball history

By AARON DORKSENDaily Record Sports EditorPublished: December 14, 2012 4:00AM

Orrville senior Hannah Plybon is a "team-first player" according to coach Mark Alberts Sr., but Thursday night at Lexington even she had to sit back and smile about what she had accomplished.

With a free throw in the second quarter, Plybon broke the Red Riders' career scoring record of 1,470 points, previously held by Stacie Howard, who starred from 1987-90 before going on to play at Ohio State.

The 5-foot-10 Plybon finished the night with 25 points, giving her 1,483 with most of the season still left to play.

Making the night even better was the fact that the Riders cruised to a convincing 62-32 win over the Lady Lex to improve to 4-0 (2-0 Ohio Cardinal Conference).

"People kept telling me that I could set the school record, but that wasn't a big focus," said Plybon, a University of Akron signee who can play any position on the floor. "The biggest thing I wanted to do as a senior was have our team go further than we did last year in the tournament (Div. III district final loss to Smithville) and just have fun playing the game and being around my teammates."

As far as secondary goals go, though, Plybon admitted it was a pretty neat experience last night.

"It feels pretty good," she said. "It wasn't like everybody was going crazy when it happened because they didn't know during the game, but afterward when everyone found out they were real happy and coming up and congratulating me. It's really a blessing. Lots of people were getting on Twitter, too, it's kinda going crazy."

Alberts, in his fifth year coaching Orrville after a long career leading the Wooster boys, said he's known about Plybon's talent since she was in grade school.

"I remember my daughter Marcie (Alberts, former Orrville coach, current Heidelberg coach) telling me about Hannah when she was in grade school," Alberts said. "Then, when Hannah came in as a freshman, she stepped in and ran the point for us.

"You could tell she was special then, but to her credit she didn't plateau as a freshman or sophomore like some kids do who are that talented early on. She's continued to work diligently and keeps getting better and better. I really believe the ceiling is even higher for how good she can be when she just works on basketball in college."

Despite being a prolific scorer, Alberts said Plybon is still a team player. In addition to leading the way in scoring last night, Plybon paced the team with nine rebounds and handed out four assists.

"If you asked her if she wanted the scoring record tonight or a win, she'd pick the win every time," he said. "Fortunately, we were able to do both.

"If we were at home we would have stopped the game (to honor Plybon), but being on the road we just kept playing. It's a big deal, but because of the kind of kid Hannah is she's not making that big a deal of it."

With a 25.8 points per game scoring average so far, at Plybon's current pace she could break two other impressive records before the season is all said and done. She has a chance to eclipse the all-time overall Orrville scoring record held by boys leader Marcell Denson (1,722 from 1992-1996) and the Wayne County girls mark owned by Chippewa's Tonya Smoot (1,745, 1994 graduate). The all-time area girls scoring record is held by 1985 West Holmes graduate Lisa Cline with 2,958 points is out of reach. Fellow Knight Christa Wells (class of 1985) is second on the area list with 2,038 points, with Smoot at No. 3.

The Riders and Plybon are focused on another West Holmes mark right now, beating the reigning OCC champion and Div. II state runner-up when the Knights (6-0, 2-0) visit Orrville Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Aaron Dorksen can be reached at 330-287-1621 or adorksen@the-daily-record.com. Follow him on Twitter at @adorksenTDR.